Australia · birds · in my garden · Mount Warning · pets · Tweed Valley · winter

Something Different – A Sun Stripe and Two Ibis

It didn’t surprise me to see the sky covered with cloud this morning. I’d woken up a couple of times during the night feeling hot, and it had been cold when I went to bed. The cloud cover holds in the humidity every time.

At first I thought Mount Warning would look drab and grey all day, until a colour caught my eye at around 6:45 am – orange. Just one strip of sunlight shone along the base of the mountain, which seemed odd considering the sun always hits the top of the mountain first.

I took photos, then asked my husband if he had an explanation for the unusual phenomena. He said the sun’s rays would have been peeking through a tiny horizontal slither in the clouds, so the top of the mountain remained in the shadows.

How unusual it looked! The sunny stripe only lasted for a couple of minutes, then it was gone.

My Big Man Bowie seemed awfully interested in something outside today too. While I sat on my sofa, reading for uni, Bowie jumped up over me to get to the window in a hurry. I wasn’t overly concerned, I imagined he’d heard a bird in the bird-bath just outside the window.

When Bowie turned and looked at me though, I thought I’d better investigate. He doesn’t usually look that amazed by a simple bird!

It’s not the best photo, taken through the window and flyscreen, but here are the culprits – two Ibis in the front yard!

These birds are the Australian White Ibis, otherwise known locally as “Bin Chickens” due to their scavenging ways. They’d each make two of Bowie, and he’s a large cat too.

No wonder poor Bowie looked so stunned! 😉

Australia · birds · in my garden · Mount Warning · palm trees · photography · Tweed Valley · winter

Another Gorgeous Misty Morning

Whenever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring your own soul. ~~ Alice Walker.

When I read this quote from Alice Walker it resonated with me. I love having beautiful things around me, and when I see Mount Warning rising above a valley filled with fluffy white mist before sunrise, it makes my heart sing. Even though I didn’t “create” this beauty, I can take photos to virtually make the beauty last longer than nature intends it to.

When the sun shone on the mountain it glowed and glistened in the sunlight. The photo doesn’t do it justice. I’ve seen this glowing effect before when there’s mist in the valley, so I suspect it has something to do with the sun’s rays reflecting – or deflecting? – on both the mountain and the mist. Or maybe the clouds play a part in creating the glow. I’m not sure.

While the mountain and mist created their magic this morning, a pair of Figbirds feasted on the red palm berries. The early morning light of the day made it possible for me to take a cute silhouette photo of a Figbird with one of the berries.

This last photo of four kookaburras is from yesterday morning. I know there are about one dozen Kookaburras in my area, but only four are visiting regularly just now. I’m hoping that means the mama birds are busily tending their nests. If that’s the case, I may have some fluffy young Kookaburras visiting my garden by summer. I hope so.

So that was my “soul restoring” activity for this morning, taking photos of the beautiful view from my garden to share with my bloggy friends. No wonder I enjoy blogging so much and miss it when I’m away from it for too long. 🙂

Australia · books · in my garden · Mount Warning · Tweed Valley · winter

During a Study Break

I’ve spent most of the day today at the computer, reading, and feel just a tad cross-eyed tonight. It’s been a long day with uni today, what with reading, an online quiz, and preparing for an assignment. At least the assignment is fairly small, but it’s due by Sunday night.

Around 2pm I took a break from my computer and went for a wander down the back garden. I thought it might be a nice change to take a photo of Mount Warning from further down my yard, where I can look up to the mountain towering above me and the cane fields are closer. It was a dull day again today, and I could see rain in the valley. It didn’t reach my house though.

On my way back to the house I took a detour into our pool area. We haven’t been spending much time in that area lately, but the hibiscus hedge that I pruned about a month ago has quite a lot of new growth on it already. We plan on making a few changes to the garden in the pool area before summer, so that will be a section of my garden that I’m sure I’ll be sharing photos of over the coming weeks. The only flowers near the pool just now are a few day-lilies, which I thought look quite pretty.

I’m heading off to bed now. I have a Mills and Boon romance novel to read for one of my units, Popular Genres. It’s not my usual choice of reading, in fact I don’t think I’ve ever read a Mills and Boon before now. There are only just over two-hundred pages, so hopefully it’s an easy read. I’m not expecting it to be a book I will highly recommend others read! I also have to read Dr No by Ian Fleming, which I’ve started reading and it seems like a pretty good read. After that, I’ll be reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – my first Harry Potter book, which I’ve borrowed from my daughter, who has read all the Harry Potter books three times! She’s very happy that I’m finally reading a H.P. book, even if it’s for uni. After that I’m reading Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

If everything goes to plan over the weekend, I’ll have time for some reading, gardening, and have my assignment finished in plenty of time before the deadline. 🙂

Australia · birds · butterflies · garden flowers · in my garden · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · photography · Tweed Valley · winter

Around the Garden

Just the tiniest, flimsiest wafts of mist danced around the valley this morning.

Before sunrise Mount Warning looked a tad grey, even the sky was grey. Then the sun peeked over the hill and lit up the morning sky.

What a difference a few minutes makes early in the morning!

I’m sure kookaburras enjoy the attention, because it seems that every time I venture outside with my camera lately, I find a little poser nearby. This little guy struck a pose on the top of my clothesline.

“Would you like a closeup of my profile? I think this is my best side …”

I can’t resist taking photos of the kookaburras I see perched on a tree down towards the valley. There were two on the branch this morning.

There are so many flowers blooming in my garden right now, even though we are in the middle of winter here in Australia.

The daisies look gorgeous right now, dancing in the sunshine.

There are only a few gazanias, but the yellow always looks so bright and summery, even in the depths of winter.

Did I say depths of winter? Our weather just now is probably similar to what some countries experience during summer! It’s a beautiful time of year.

My pink dianthus bloom nearly all year round.

When I saw this butterfly, which I believe is a male Common Eggfly, flitting around the daisies, I suspected it would fly away before I had a chance to get a decent shot – but it didn’t! I’m pretty excited to get my first decent photo of a butterfly in my garden. There’s another photo of him on yesterday’s Wordless Wednesday post too, with his wings open.